It
was only at four o'clock instead of at midday that they deigned to make up
their minds. They and the Revolutionary Socialists of the Left occupied
seats of the extreme left; then came the Revolutionary Socialists, the
Mensheviki, and the other Socialist fractions. The seats on the right
remained vacant. The few Cadets that had been chosen preferred not to come.
In this manner the Constituent Assembly was composed at this first and last
session solely of Socialists. This, however, did not prevent the presence
in the corridors and the session hail of a crowd of sailors and Red Guards
armed, as if it were a question of an assembly of conspirators, enemies of
the Revolution.
From the beginning a fight was started by the election of president. The
majority nominated for the office of president Chernov; the Bolsheviki and
the Revolutionary Socialists of the Left voted against him. The Bolsheviki
did not propose any candidate of their own, and placed before the members
the candidacy of a Revolutionary Socialist of the Left, Marie Spiridonova,
who was totally incapable of fulfilling this role. Afterward several
declarations were read--that of the Bolsheviki, that of the
Socialist-Revolutionists (read by Chernov), that of the Mensheviki (read by
Tseretelli).
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